The VII Chimera Tournament
by Biddett da Pigeon Stalker
Summary: This is it! The tournament of the year! The Chimera Tournament is here, so sit back and watch the events roll by to find out who's gonna win this year's tournament!


Hmmm…okay. Hello everyone! :) I'd guess I'd just get on with the disclaimer…

I do not own Armored Core, or anything to do with it. However, I do own William Wynn and Angela Mys, and perhaps their ACs. Oh, and Entra Dome.

*~Biddett da Pigeon Stalker~*

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"Welcome to the VII Chimera Tournament. I'm Lucinda Newman reporting LIVE from Entra Dome, where the qualifying rounds are currently being held." A blonde woman announced from outside a huge building. The sky was a bright cheery blue and it looked quite the opposite of the carnage that was happening within Entra. 

"Today has been quite a day for the first day of qualifiers, as you'll see…" The scene cut to within the building and a room now rather dark and damp. Something was moving, but the eye could just barely see it. A blinding flash played across the screen and light restored to the room. An AC stood proudly, and just behind it, a litter of smouldering MTs sat, almost completely unaware of the fact that they had been destroyed.

The scene cut once again, this time to a broader open dome, where light poured in freely. Two reverse-jointed ACs clashed, blade to blade. One was mainly blue and white, and looked to be quite a speedy AC, while the other was a shade of fiery red and black and was equipped with heavy weapons. The blue AC (named Swift) fired off a barrage of machine gun bullets, and the red AC (called Volcano) replied with a volley of missiles. Swift veered away quickly, and the majority of missiles didn't make contact with the blue and white AC. 

Volcano boosted around and fired a grenade. This caught Swift off guard, and Swift went to dodge it, but the shot just clipped him. Volcano came in for the final attack. His blade was millimetres from Swift when a horn blew.

"Aghhh! _I was so close_!" Volcano's pilot, Cage howled. "Couldn't the time limit be extended by _two seconds?!_"

"'Fraid not, buddy." Came the voice of Edge, Swift's pilot, over the intercom. "Lucky for me though!"

Finally, the camera switched back to Lucinda. "Okay! For all you newcomers to this tournament, I had better lay out the rules, and registration information. There are two parts to the tournament- a simple round-robin tournament, and an MT Destruction event, where you simply destroy as many MTs or Disorder Units in a time limit. You can enter one AC for each event, or one for both. It's up to you. AC parts are to be from Armored Core 3 _only_. Not from Silent Line. All ACs are immediately equipped with the optional part 'INTENSIFY', so you can have back weapons like slug guns without the need to go into a kneeling position (and so other optional parts are not needed). Overweight ACs are allowed, but not recommended as they will operate sluggishly. Weapon dropping and recollecting is permitted." The blonde reporter took a deep breath.

"Now, all that said, let me explain the qualifying round. Four ACs are placed within the four corners of Entra Dome, and the outer sides of this building are quite maze-like. MTs are placed throughout the Dome and the ACs are to locate all of the MTs and destroy them. Next, they are to head to the centre, which is much more open. Here, they are to pick each other off, and the last one standing goes through. Of course, there is a time limit, so if there are two left when the time expires, they both qualify."

Suddenly, her watery blue eyes darted off to the left. She pressed her headphone closer into her ear.

"Okay. So if you didn't get that, here's an actual live qualifying round starting to make a bit more sense. Streaming live from…3, 2, 1…" The reporter's voice faded away, and the picture abruptly changed to inside the Entra Dome.

***

A heavy-weight reverse jointed AC was the only thing in sight. It was black, except for yellow, orange, and red cracks patterned across its body, making it look like magma. This was the Magma Dragon, an AC of the pilot Angela Mys. It had missiles either side of its back, a bazooka left arm weapon and the MOONLIGHT laser blade. The camera flicked to the inside of the Magma Dragon. Angela was barely 19. She sat nervously at the controls, her hazel eyes showing the one emotion: Fear. 

Her left hand was wrapped around a silver phoenix pendant, and she closed her eyes and muttered something under her breath. She withdrew her hand from the pendant, and ran it through her dark brown hair, which was up in a ponytail. The only part of her hair that wasn't dark brown was her goldy-blonde fringe, which framed her face.

"Hey there. You're a newbie, huh?" A voice crackled over the intercom.

Angela jumped, and then glanced up. A man in his mid twenties with blond spiky hair, and sky blue eyes grinned cockily.

"Yeah…" She muttered at the term 'newbie'.

He laughed. "We're all newbies sometime. Name's William. William Wynn."

Angela gasped. "You're…you're the guy who's won practically all of the Chimera Tournaments, aren't you?!"

"Not all. From the IV up to date. Maybe this year I'll get a challenge." He replied.

Angela stopped dead in her tracks. _It just had to be _him_ I'm fighting against in my first attempt in the Chimera Tournament, didn't it?!_ She thought angrily to herself.

"Oh, by the way…I have a proposition." He continued.

"Uh…yeah?" She said hesitantly, her brain racing to think of what kind of plan he was scheming to get rid of her easily.

"We're up against Royal Mist and Valkyrie. They're pretty hard unless you know how to beat them. And since you're a newbie, I'd thought I'd be nice and give you a chance. So how about we work together for this one?" He asked.

"Me? Why would you want _me_ for?" She questioned. 

"Oh…fine. You'll just get beaten to a smouldering lump of metal; I'd thought I'd give you a chance, that's all…" He went to disconnect.

"Wait! Okay, fine." Angela finally agreed.

"Okay. Keep going to the most you can to the left. I'll see you there then." And he disconnected.

Angela seemed shocked at what she had just done. But then, something flashed up on the panel. **00:10 Until Start Of Round**. Ten seconds left.

**00:05…00:04…00:03…00:02…00:01…**

And then a new time flashed up. **15:00. **They had fifteen minutes to complete the round. Okay.

The Magma Dragon boosted off to the left, encountering around six MTs. Quickly Angela locked on with her missiles and did away with them. She might be a rookie to the tournament, but she's no rookie on piloting ACs.

***

Meanwhile, William's AC, the humanoid Rusty, sat patiently waiting. He had what looked like a light-weight AC, but it was decked out with a chain gun, grenade launcher, heavy laser blade, and bazooka. It was mainly a rusted brown-bronze colour, except for a patch of bright green on the right arm and the core. He moved Rusty forward one step, and that took it a good thirty seconds or so. In other words, his AC was severely overweight. 

A blast echoed through the gloomy passage, indicating that the rookie's AC, Magma Dragon was nearing. 

He managed to get his overweight Rusty to a run, and caught up with Angela, firing madly at a group of MTs with her bazooka, before finally rushing in with her laser blade.

"Hi there!" He greeted. At that, he dropped his bazooka and grenade launcher, leaving him with his chain gun and laser blade.

"Let's go then, shall we?" And Rusty boosted off at a rocketing pace.

"W-wait up!" She called, surprised.

Will glanced behind to him to see the Magma Dragon having trouble keeping up. He brought his attention back to the front, and noticed a group of MTs. He fired with his chain gun and met no resistance. _This is no fun…_ He thought to himself.

**12:30**

Will was sure that Valkyrie and Royal Mist would be inside the actual dome now, fighting it out between them to find out who was going to fight against him. What they didn't know was he hadn't completely annihilated the rookie that he started nearest to. And she could be used to his advantage…

The Magma Dragon finished off the last few MTs in the gloomy room, and then noticed something else was shooting at her. She glanced into her radar, and found that she had left something. Angela quickly scanned the room, trying to lock on. No luck.

"Huh. So they finally decided to bring in some disorder units." Will thought aloud.

_Right._ Angela thought. _No wonder I couldn't lock on._

Rusty shot past and slashed something. The firing stopped.

**10:00**

"That's all of the MTs." Will informed Angela, as she locked onto the last three and attacked with her missiles.

"We should head to the dome now, right?" Angela asked tentatively. 

"Yeah. C'mon, this way!" He raced off to the right. 

"Uh…okay!" Angela followed swiftly. 

**09:15**

The two ACs now stood on top of a grate, looking down into a huge open dome.

"It's bigger than I expected…" Angela breathed to herself.

"Yeah, I know. It startled me when I first tried too." He grinned to himself as the memory came to mind.

Something nearby shuddered. Angela jumped.

"W-w-what was that?" She asked, spooked.

"Oh…just the one last MT we have to destroy before we get in, that's all." He turned and kept his sights on a huge door. 

**09:00**

The door opened by a crack, from the bottom. Very slowly, it lifted up.

"Sheez, Angela. You look like you're wetting yourself. Calm down!" Will teased her.

Angela stayed silent. Whatever was coming out of there was _huge!_

And well, it was! A giant spider-like MT crawled out. Almost straight away, it began to fire. The Magma Dragon scooted off to the side and fired a barrage of missiles.

Rusty flew overhead and fired away with his chain gun. Suddenly, he stopped firing. He dropped his chain gun, and said,

"Seeya in a tick." And he flew back and away.

"Y-Y-YOU'RE GONNA LEAVE ME HERE?! W-WITH…_IT?_" She cried.

"Hey, no sweat. You'll be fine. I'll be back before you know it, anyway!" He called back.

Angela quickly put her boost-hopping into action. She jumped slightly off the ground, and boosted a small way forward. She loved that trick. Most guns find it hard to hit her. 

Changing to her bazooka, she fired off countless rounds, before the MT decided to change to grenades. Angela dodged the first few shots easily, but she misjudged her boost-hop and landed right in the attack.

The Magma Dragon was paralysed slightly, and this was enough for the giant spider MT to continue attacking her. 

Angela closed her eyes and braced herself to lose. At this rate, her AC would be nothing within thirty seconds.

The attacks stopped. She opened her eyes, and looked. The spider was destroyed…it had a huge slash mark trailing right over it. The Magma Dragon wheeled around to face Rusty.

_Maybe he's not so bad after all…_ Angela thought. _Well, he did come back and help me!_

**5:32**

The two descended into the actual Entra Dome, glancing around to search for either Royal Mist or Valkyrie.

Angela suddenly spotted Valkyrie, the white and light blue sniper AC. But it was a wreck. 

_This doesn't look good._ She thought.

The Magma Dragon suddenly wobbled. It shook violently. She was under attack! Looking wildly around, she spotted Royal Mist. High in the air, and locking on again!

She boosted forward and fired her bazooka. All three shots missed.

He fired again. A wall of missiles came straight for her. Then, calling on her extension, a back booster, she tore backwards, and dodged them all.

An explosion caught Royal Mist. It was Rusty, who was now equipped with his bazooka, not his chain gun. He flew towards him, firing more.

Using this time, Angela locked on and fired with her remaining missiles on her first missile launcher. She had two, so this didn't matter too much to her.

Will began to slash Royal Mist mercilessly. And when he tried to hit back, he would veer away. _This is even easier with a team mate, no matter how new she is to this._ He grinned cockily.

Rusty laid off the brutal attack and flew a few circles around him, before landing back on the ground. He shot at him from the ground, knowing Royal Mist was going to dodge it. He was just messing around now. Like a lion playing with a young gazelle before going in for the kill.

Will glanced at what ammo he had left. "Huh." He muttered. "One shot left." He discarded his bazooka anyway. 

"Be back soon. Don't freak out on me this time, kay?" He boosted back up to the maze area.

"'Kay…" Angela replied. She watched as Rusty disappeared off the radar.

Royal Mist launched another missile attack. Angela dodged it with ease. This was just getting boring, dodging missiles all the time now…

He finally looked to be out of missiles, as he was attacking with his shotgun now. Good. The time to attack was now. The Magma Dragon launched an attack with her bazooka. She was going to run out soon, so she had better make these last few shots worth it.

Coming in close, she landed a slash with her blade, which she quickly followed with another blast from her left arm weapon. Looking at him, he wouldn't be able to put up for much longer. It was almost over…

Completely out of the blue, Royal Mist shot one last barrage of missiles. Angela wasn't expecting it. She fell right into his trap.

The Magma Dragon hurtled backwards, into the wall, which crumbled under impact. 

An explosion ripped through the air. Will was back, and he took out Royal Mist with ease!

**01:05**

Angela hauled her damaged AC out. Had they done it? She glanced around hastily. Royal Mist laid on the ground, lifeless. They had won!

"AHH!" The already-damaged Magma Dragon fell towards the ground once more. She glared at Rusty.

"W-w…what..was…that for?!" She yelled.

"Hey. We have to. As long as the round continues, we have to fight to find out who's gonna go on. We can't just stand here for a minute doing nothing, you know!" Will replied.

"But you said we were gonna work together!" She shot back.

"Mmm…but we can't both go on! Well, if you can survive me with that wreck, then yeah, you do, but as it looks, you didn't stand a chance from the beginning anyway." He said bitterly.

"WHAT?! Then why'd you help me?" Angela pulled her half-destroyed AC back to its feet.

"Hah. I needed someone to keep that MT and Royal Mist off my back while I changed weapons." Will sounded as if he had just caught her trying to steal a part of his.

"You…you _JERK_!" Angela boosted off the ground, and slashed at him. Rusty hurtled backwards, and he caught himself.

Angela locked on speedily and fired.

**00:00** Flashed across the screen. A horn sounded.

***

The screen returned once again to Lucinda. The bright blue sky now was a dying orange and rose colour.

"Well, there you have it! That is how the qualifying round plays. The heads are still looking for applicants, so if you're a Raven interested in entering a tournament, this is the one for you! Get sending in you're applications! I'm Lucinda Newman, good evening!"

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Well…that's that then! Feel free to go back up to the top and click on the link "Biddett da Pigeon Stalker" and read my bio and maybe check out some of my other fanfictions if you're interested in them!

Oh…by the way. This is a bit of a crossover between AC 2 (and the expansion Another Age) and AC 3, so some things might be from one or the other. I'm not including Silent Line because it was never released here in my country (or to my knowledge anyway), and that really sucks.

That's all then!

*~Biddett da Pigeon Stalker~*


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